Gennaro Contaldo, best-known as Jamie Oliver’s mentor, has opened his latest restaurant near Piccadilly Circus – at the mature age of 77. Named Bolo after his signature Bolognese ragu, the 32-seat trattoria in Air Street serves a tight menu that revolves around seven pasta dishes – including the ‘Jamie’ (mezze maniche with sausage, Calabrian chilli bolo & […]
Veeraswamy, Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant, celebrated its centenary on Monday at a dinner that opened with a Mulligatawny soup which featured on its first menu, served by waiting staff in newly tailored uniforms copied from the 1926 originals (pictured). The future of the Regent Street institution remains in doubt following landlord the Crown Estate’s decision […]
Swedish chef Joakim ‘Jokke’ Almqvist launches the latest edition of Punk Royale, his “messy, no-bullshit” take on Nordic fine dining, in London today (12 September) – vowing “we’re not here to play it safe“. Jokke founded Punk Royale in Stockholm in 2015 and followed up with branches in Copenhagen and Oslo. The new venue, just off […]
Veteran Japanese restaurant Yoshino is to reopen following a three-year search for new premises after losing its long-term perch in an alleyway off Piccadilly Circus. It will move to St James’s, a few minutes walk away, taking over the premises until recently occupied by Al Duca in Duke of York Street. The family-run Italian restaurant […]
Tel Aviv-based restaurant Claro makes its European debut with tomorrow’s opening of a branch at St James’s market, off Piccadilly Circus. It has taken over an ex-Villandry site with an outdoor terrace in what was once a bank building in Waterloo Place. Featuring ‘contemporary, sophisticated Eastern Mediterranean cuisine’, Claro was founded in Tel Aviv 10 […]
Park Row, the ambitious Batman comic-themed ‘experiential dining’ complex off Piccadilly Circus, and TV chef Monica Galetti’s Mere have this week both announced their closure. Monica and her husband David Galetti will serve their last meal next Tuesday, April 17, after seven years in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia. Park Row has shuttered after a two-and-a-half-year run, […]
GAIA, a ‘refined Greek taverna’ based in Dubai, opens its first London branch next Friday (8 December) on a prominent Mayfair corner site where Dover Street meets Piccadilly. Founded in 2018 by British-Nigerian chef Izu Ani, who grew up in Tottenham, and Russian-born entrepreneur Evgeny Kuzin, the concept already has branches in Monte Carlo and […]
Former Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston exec chef Ashley Palmer-Watts has emerged as the mystery third man behind new Soho pub The Devonshire, which opens today. The long-planned venture close to Piccadilly Circus is on a prominent corner of Denham Street, originally a pub from 1793 and more recently a Jamie’s Italian. It is […]
Hot on the heels of restaurateur supreme Jeremy King announcing his comeback venture The Park – a modern take on the European grand café tradition launching next April opposite the entrance to Kensington Gardens – comes news that he is in “advanced talks” over two sites in the West End: one of them directly opposite […]
A dream team of pub landlord Oisin Rogers (right in photo) and Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll (left) have teamed up to open their “dream pub” in Soho. The Devonshire, just off Piccadilly Circus in Denham Street, is scheduled to launch this autumn. Oisin ran the Guinea Grill in Mayfair for six years, turning it […]
